The world is a crazy place. Cook for someone soon. Light the candles. Breathe. Everyone's fed.

Friday, August 7, 2009

Summer in the City-Tomato-Basil Goat Cheese

Home again, Home againJiggity Jog

Margo and Mark's Magnificent Back YardThis is summer, isn't it?

It is a day of, shall we say, mixed emotions. Today is the last day of my conducting class at University of St. Thomas. It is also the day before we head home, slowly wending our way through the Badlands toward home and our own bed, house and loved neighbors and friends. Leaving Minnesohhhhhta is bittersweet and that puts it mildly. Out my door and down a few blocks west (toward the Mississippi River) lies the campus, full of newly-loved people and dreams come true. One block southsits Mac Plymouth United Church (combination PCUSA and UCC) and many good friends in the surrounding neighborhood. Lots of good meals, wonderful music...memories of worship alive--changing and continually becoming something it had never been before. A worship goal to hold in your hands and smile at.

My view as I walk out my front door:

Not sure what I'll miss most. You guess.

My car stops automatically when it sees this sign. There's absolutely nothing I can do about it.I return home a different person; I will never again look at music in the same way and my years' old conducting method (gotterdone, but by the seat of my pants), has been wiped away and replaced by something I'm only beginning to glimpse. A newbie art at 55. If God calls us to do the things he needs, be very sure he also calls to what heals.Still a real movie theater two blocks down

Big breath, close this chapter. Move on to another life. I thought I'd leave you with some images of life in St. Paul. They could speak for themselves (I've put in a few notes)-- though the dog is my friend, Max and, while Max DOES indeed speak volumes, you can't hear her from there. Because I've enjoyed so much great cheese, I'll leave Summer in the City here in Minnesota with a cheese starter.Pizza you grab and bake at home; worth the trip ------the very best of the take homes.Oh, are we cooking? Ok...................I remember now.The recipe for today is a quickly managed cracker or sliced baguette topping to share with someone you love or to take as a house gift if you're going to dinner. Buy an inexpensive ramekin, fill it with the cheese and wrap it up with saran and a tiny bow. This cheese will keep a day or two (longer if you leave out the tomato until right before serving). I would hug a Sancerre with this cheese. While I am a red wino, my very favorite wine in the world is probably a Tuesday night bagpipe practice at Macalester CollegeSancerre, which is a sweet (not literally) SauvignonBlanc from the north side of the Loire. Get your map out. The smoothest thing about a Sancerre may very well be its price. If you want a top level red wine, you are going to pay dearly. However, a GREAT, aromatic and versatile, lipsmackingSancerre will set you back only $22-$27. You can buy very drinkable Sauvignon Blancs for much less.

Some of the great stuff from St. Paul Cheeseand Breadsmith

While the cheese (including from the Farmer's Market) has been topnotch, I am still fond of creating something on my own. I am in the process of finding out more about making goat's cheese myself, but in the meantime, why not make this starter for late summer? It is also a good omelette filling or sandwich spread. Have a go; it takes..........oh......5 minutes??

TOMATO-BASIL GOAT CHEESE SPREADserve on crackers or toasted, sliced baguette4 oz goat's cheese at room temperature4 oz ricotta cheese2 cloves garlic, minced finely1 medium tomato, seeded, juiced*, and minced2T fresh basil chiffonade (shredded, "ragged" in the French)1/4 t Freshly-ground mixed pepper1 t grated lemon rindDo this in the way you like best. Either put the whole kit and caboodle in the food processor and let it have its way with the cheese or put it in a bowl and mix the love of life into it by hand. Either way, you could make a meal on this if you had to. Dreaming cooks might add a little milk and use this for a veggie dip.

*Cut tomato in half. Take each half and, with one hand, squeeze it well over a bowl to extract juice and seeds.Bye, Max

Lifelong thanks to teachers Angie Broeker (Head of Choral Activities) and David Jenkins (Liturgical Director)----------I've sung so many new songs I can't name them all; now you try--Alyce

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Among virtually every culture on Earth, anything worth doing is best done over dinner. Bring out a nicely braised roast, a hot loaf of bread, and a slice of lemon pie, and rifts can be healed, pacts sealed, loves revealed. Even the condemned do not want to leave the world without one last supper. --Natalie Angier

New York Times, November, 2000.

"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where Nature may heal and cheer and give strength to body and soul alike." ~ John Muir

“I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.”E.B. White

"We sing because we can."(John Bell)"And remember, anyone can cook" Auguste Gusteau."No one grows old at the table." (Italian proverb)"A fruit is a vegetable with looks and money. Plus, if you let fruit rot, it turns into wine, something Brussels sprouts never do."-PJ O'Rourke."Where there is cake, there is hope. And there is always cake." - Dean Koontz... plus..."Once, if I remember well, my life was a feast where all hearts opened and all wines flowed."-- Arthur Rimbaud.

When people were hungry, Jesus didn’t say, 'Now, is that political or social?' He said, 'I feed you.' Because the good news to a hungry person is bread." --Desmond Tutu"People who love to eat are always the BEST people."Julia Child.“I thought such awful thoughts that I cannot even say them out loud, because they would make Jesus want to drink gin straight out of the cat dish.” --Anne Lamott.

It seems that all my bridges have been burntBut you say that's exactly how this grace thing works.It's not the long walk home that will change this heartBut the welcome I receive with every start

-Roll Away Your Stone, Mumford & Sons

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. --Robert Louis Stevenson

If we have no peace, it's because we have forgotten that we belong to one another. --Mother Teresa

Why, sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. -Lewis Carroll, ALICE IN WONDERLAND

Psalm 96:1

Oh sing to the Lord a new song.

..

"I do not understand the mystery of grace - only that it meets us where we are and does not leave us where it found us." Anne Lamott

About Me

Church choir director, writer, avid home cook, recipe tester, and teacher, I'm married to the love of my life, the mom of great adult children, grandma to one adorable boy, and the owner of one spoiled golden retriever. Most of the time, I live right in Colorado Springs, but I also love in St. Paul, Minnesota (home of the best farmer's market in the United States) I support World Food Programme in the fight against world hunger.